Creativity and Internet Marketing
November 11, 2007
I love reading the different webmaster and affiliate marketing forums. Not only can you get some great insights, but you can also learn from the mistakes of others. The most common scenario I see from people who struggle making money is their constant obsession with what everyone else is doing. They want to know step by step how to make a million dollar website. While I wouldn’t mind reading a book that details just that, I am also realistic enough to recognize there is an element to this industry where you have to rely on your own intuition.
It seems to me that the most insightful forum and blog posts I have read all share the same thing in common. The author gives some great tips, but then follows them up with some valuable advice…get creative. Too many affiliate sites are all the same (including some of mine), and I think the average internet user has become overexposed to the millions of bait-and-switch sites that saturate the web. This is the exact reason why I have begun to experiment with some alternatives to the standard affiliate website format I have been using. It has become obvious to me that you really do need to come up with something creative and eye-catching if you are going to breakthrough to the next level in this field.
So what makes for a creative affiliate website? Well first of all, I don’t have one so I wouldn’t know! That being said, I do have some of my own concepts that I am trying to integrate into my next two projects. First and foremost, I want to offer value to the visitor. This means they will be glad they stopped by my site and will hopefully come back or tell a friend. Secondly, I want it to be targeted enough to rank well in the search engines and realize a nice flow of traffic. I have learned though experience that traffic really makes a huge difference in terms of sales (duh), but it is not easy to build traffic to a sales-pitch site. Even more difficult is gaining backlinks to these types of sites. Thus, I am now focusing on content first since it is much more likely to build sustainable traffic and generate backlinks on its own.
Of course this is all just theory on my part. I could average 1000 unique visitors a day who have no interest in clicking on any of my affiliate links, and this would leave me with the greatest idea that never made a penny! But considering how much time and effort I spend on begging and pleading people to clickthrough to another website, I welcome the prospect of attracting thousands of visitors who actually want to stay for a few minutes. I just need to hope that some of then will be in the buying mood.
